ETSI’s First ISAC Report Lays Foundations for 6G Sensing and Communication Integration

ETSI has published its first report dedicated to Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) in future 6G systems. Titled ETSI GR ISC 001, this important document provides a comprehensive analysis of advanced ISAC use cases and deployment scenarios, setting the foundation for future developments.

Developed by the ETSI ISAC Industry Specification Group (ISG), the report marks a major step in identifying the critical functional and performance requirements needed to support cutting-edge ISAC applications.

The report details 18 advanced use cases (as can be seen in the table above), ranging from human motion recognition and emergency search and rescue, to autonomous vehicle navigation and industrial robotics. For each use case, the report outlines:

  • Deployment scenarios
  • Pre-conditions and post-conditions
  • Service flows through communication systems
  • Enabling technologies
  • Potential requirements
  • Pertinent sensing modes and integration levels

The deployment environments cover a wide variety of scenarios—indoors, outdoors, mixed indoor/outdoor, in-coverage and out-of-coverage with sensing targets including people, vehicles, UAVs, robots, and more.

ETSI’s report introduces a structured framework for integrating sensing within 6G systems, defining:

  • Three levels of integration: tight, intermediate, and loose
  • Six sensing modes: including monostatic and bistatic configurations involving both transmission/reception points (TRPs) and user equipment (UE)

This framework will be crucial for standardising ISAC capabilities and ensuring flexibility across different deployments and use cases.

The key technical highlights from the report includes: 

  • Frequency Band Utilisation: The report highlights the need for sensing across low (sub-6 GHz), mid (~7–24 GHz), and high (mmWave/THz) bands. Many use cases benefit from multi-band approaches and may also incorporate non-radio frequency (non-RF) sensors, such as cameras and environmental detectors.
  • Fusion of Data Sources: Combining 6G system (6GS) and non-6GS data is seen as critical. This data fusion has significant implications for system design, architecture, and trust management.
  • Security, Privacy, and Sustainability: Given that many use cases involve human-centric sensing, the report places strong emphasis on securing sensing data, ensuring privacy, and promoting sustainability. Nine of the 18 use cases have human sensing as their primary goal, making this an essential consideration.

The report consolidates the requirements emerging from the described use cases into a unified set, grouped under four categories:

  • General Requirements
  • Network Configuration
  • Network Exposure
  • Security, Privacy and Trustworthiness

New Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) such as Fine Motion Accuracy and Sensing Service Range are also proposed to accurately evaluate sensing performance in 6G systems.

The findings of ETSI GR ISC 001 are already feeding into several ongoing ETSI initiatives, including:

  • ISAC channel modelling, measurements, and evaluation methodology (ETSI GR ISC 002)
  • System and RAN architecture for ISAC (ETSI GR ISC 003)
  • Security, privacy, trustworthiness, and sustainability aspects (ETSI GR ISC 004)

Future work will address the specific challenges highlighted by the wide variety of deployment scenarios, sensing targets, and mobility conditions.

In particular, system design will need to account for the fusion of multiple sensing sources, the ability to support multiple sensing modes, and the security measures necessary to protect human-centric data. Sustainability will also be a key driver, with sensing functionality being leveraged to optimise network operation and reduce energy consumption where possible.

In conclusion, the publication of ETSI GR ISC 001, ETSI has taken a major step forward in laying the groundwork for integrated sensing capabilities in future 6G networks. The detailed use cases, functional requirements, and proposed KPIs will serve as essential references for ongoing standardisation and research activities across the global 6G ecosystem.

This work reaffirms the growing importance of sensing as a core service alongside communications in 6G, paving the way for new applications, improved efficiency, and a truly intelligent networked world.

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